g m g D e s i g n . c o m

The technical community has largely rejected Windows Vista. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows 7, their next version of their flagship desktop OS. Unlike previous releases, this one will almost certainly be on time. The reason lies largely in the slow adoption of Vista by businesses. Consumers who purchase new PCs get Vista b/c that’s what OEMs offer, and most don’t question it. It’s geekdom that, for the most part, has rejected Vista.

Vista offers major enhancements over Windows XP (its predecessor). Ironically, most of these enhancements appeal directly to technical people, esp security-conscious people. So, what about Vista inspires irrational hate from bespeckled nerds? The following:

1. “annoying popups” prompting confirmation for system-level changes
2. higher hardware/resource requirements

That’s it, really. Those popups refer to UAC: user account control. It’s touted as a security feature to protect applications from making system-level changes without authorization. In reality, the goal is to push ISVs (independent software vendors, read: software companies other than Microsoft) to produce software that writes to user folders rather than “system” folders like the “program files” directory, the “c:\windows” directory, etc.

The higher resource requirements–even after disabling Aero, Vista’s cool new interface–is a valid complaint. The constant complaining about UAC (the “annoying popups”) is nonsense. Most users won’t face more than a handful of UAC prompts at all. They’ll occasionally upgrade their OEM software or sporadically install new applications. That’s it.

Geeks like to make system-level changes all the time. They’ll run into as many UAC prompts in a day as the average person does in a year. Good reason to hate UAC? No, because it can be trivially disabled and later re-enabled. And software geeks have no problem negotiating the enabling and disabling of security features.

The real reason geeks hate Vista

Because they’re supposed to. Because other Slashdot users loathe it. Because it’s Microsoft, and Microsoft is eeevil.

Extremely funny editorial by O’Rouke on why print media needs a government bailout. Teaser first paragraph:

The print journalism industry is taking a beating, circling the drain, running on fumes. Especially running on fumes. You could smell Frank Rich all the way to Nome when Sarah Palin was nominated. Not that print journalism actually emits much in the way of greenhouse gases. We have an itty-bitty carbon footprint. We’re earth-friendly. The press run of an average big-city daily newspaper can be made from one tree. Compare that to the global warming hot air produced by talk radio, cable television and Andrew Sullivan.